ZKP News - 2024-08

Note: The following content was translated into English by AI.

2024.8.28

[Papers]

• Morita et al. debut “MAESTRO: Multi-party AES using Lookup Tables,” an efficient multi-party AES protocol in the honest-majority setting that blends lookup-table techniques with finite-field decomposition to cut communication and computation costs in MPC. Paper

• Nguyen et al. introduce Greyhound in “Greyhound: Fast Polynomial Commitments from Lattices,” the first efficient polynomial commitment based on standard lattice assumptions. A three-round protocol plus the LaBRADOR proof system delivers succinct evaluations and sublinear verification time. Paper

[Videos]

• ZK Hack released demo recordings from the May hackathon in Kraków. Video | Projects

• ZKM published ZK Day @ SBC sessions featuring Aleo. Playlist

• ZKM also uploaded talks from House of ZK, Brussels (EthCC). Playlist

[Blogs]

• Following last month’s Noir zkKYC circuits, Tisura documents porting them to the web with NoirJS in “An incomplete guide to zk-KYC apps.” Blog

• Rafal and co-authors present “Bulletproofs: a Crypto Gunfight at the OK Corral,” a dialogue-style history of inner-product arguments. Blog

• LambdaClass details how it implemented the BN254 Ate pairing in lambdaworks. Blog

[Open Source]

• A new batch small-field sum-check technique using Frobenius twists targets vectorized Boolean operations. Code | Notes

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs published an August 25 zk roundup. Link

• OKX invested in Space and Time (SxT), which delivers a verifiable compute layer for AI + blockchain via its Proof of SQL ZKP system. Link

• NEBRA used two cartoon cows on X to explain four privacy technologies: ZK, FHE, MPC, and TEE. 𝕏

2024.8.21

[Papers]

• Chalkias et al. (Mysten Labs) highlight “Improved Polynomial Division in Cryptography,” a unified optimization strategy that doubles KZG performance and yields 2–3% gains in Groth16. Paper

• Bernstein et al. discuss curve selection pitfalls in “Safe curves for elliptic-curve cryptography,” stressing discrete log attacks and implementation hazards. Paper

• Robin Linus et al. share the draft “BitVM2: Bridging Bitcoin to Second Layers,” enabling arbitrary programs on Bitcoin with optimistic computation plus SNARKs in just three on-chain transactions—no consensus changes required. The BitVM Bridge protocol loosens trust assumptions so any challenger can verify. Paper

[Videos]

• StarkWare uploaded Scholar Summit talks featuring Binius, ECFFT, Circle STARK, and more. Playlist

[Blogs]

• Ingonyama profiled Kroma Network’s Tachyon project, a GPU-accelerated generic ZKP library. Blog

• NovaNet explored AI agents with blockchain payments and open-sourced a SuperNova-based zkWASM stack. Blog | Code

[Open Source]

• asm-nop released a lemma marketplace where users stake bounties; RISC0 proves the lemma and payouts are handled on-chain. Code

• A Rust implementation accompanies “SuperSpartan by Hand” for side-by-side study. Blog | Code

• Nova-based verification of Bitcoin block headers went open source: proving 100k headers takes 4 hours with 0.5 GB RAM (or under 2 hours with 20 GB) and yields proofs under 16 kB, inspired by ZeroSync. Code | 𝕏

• RISC Zero announced Solana support, using Groth16 on that chain. Code | 𝕏

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs published an August 18 zk roundup. Link

• A fresh curated list, Awesome-ZKP-Security, compiles papers, tutorials, and tooling with a security focus. Note: Different content from the list shared two weeks ago. Link

2024.8.14

[Papers]

• Dellepere et al. (Provable) present Garuda and Pari in “Garuda and Pari: Faster and Smaller SNARKs via Equifficient Polynomial Commitments.” Garuda supports custom and free linear gates, while Pari shrinks proof sizes—much like Polymath’s KZG conversion, but even smaller. Note: Competition in short-proof SNARKs is heating up. Paper

• Shih et al. propose zk-promises in “zk-Promises: Making Zero-Knowledge Objects Accept the Call for Banning and Reputation,” enabling anonymous account management and accountability with private-state updates that avoid leaking personal data. Paper

[Blogs]

• zkSecurity became the first non-StarkWare team to submit a Cairo proof to Ethereum and explained the process. Blog | 𝕏

• ChainSafe published a Circle STARK tutorial. Blog

• zkSecurity highlighted common security pitfalls in Aleo programming. Blog

• ArkStream Capital released an industry report on zero-knowledge proof projects. Report

• LambdaClass shared how they engineered a fast research VM for zkSync. Blog | Code

[Open Source]

• SP1 (Plonky3-based zkVM) declared production readiness with benchmarks touting massive gains over RISC Zero—sparking lively debate about real-world performance. 𝕏

• NEBRA open-sourced its Universal Proof Aggregation (UPA) engine and launched mainnet support. Code | 𝕏

• Vitalik updated zorch (GPU-accelerated STARK proving) to support M31 and binary fields. Code | 𝕏

• VIMz, a Nova-folded zkSNARK for image manipulation, is now fully open source. Code

• A Plonky3 tutorial walks through a Fibonacci example. Blog code

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs released an August 11 zk roundup. Link

• Soul Wallet launched zkEmail-based social recovery on Optimism. 𝕏

• ZircuitL2, an OP-based zkEVM, faced scrutiny for a very simple verification circuit that raised concerns about potential backdoors. 𝕏

• L2Beat now tracks L2 contract status, proof systems, and verification states in one place. Link

• zkSecurity released noname v2 with an online playground. Blog | Playground | 𝕏

• zkSecurity opened registration slots for zkNews. 𝕏

• A “ZK market map” highlights influential projects across the ecosystem. 𝕏

2024.8.7

[Papers]

• Dimitriou et al. (Nethermind Research) propose “Mova: Nova folding without committing to error terms,” folding R1CS instances without error or cross-term commitments. Proof speed improves, verifier cost matches HyperNova, and round complexity drops—though still four rounds versus Nova’s single round. Paper

• Lavin et al. survey zero-knowledge proof applications across industries in “A Survey on the Applications of Zero-Knowledge Proofs.” Paper

[Videos]

• PSE launched a project spotlight series; the first episode covers identity projects such as TLSNotary, Semaphore, and Anon Aadhaar. Video

• The CCF SPP talk “Modeling and Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems,” while not ZK-specific, offers academic insights relevant to proof construction. Replay

• Dapp Learning released a Chinese-language Groth16 video series. Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3

[Blogs]

• LambdaClass revisited the classic Pinocchio protocol in “Pinocchio: verifiable computation revisited.” Blog

• Anoma published “SuperSpartan by Hand” and “HyperNova by Hand,” handwritten walkthroughs of both systems. SuperSpartan | HyperNova

• Jolt explained how it models VM constraints with Circom (not executing Circom programs) in a long-form post. 𝕏

[Open Source]

• Argument Computer (creators of the recursive Lurk system) released Sphinx, a RISC-V zkVM forked from SP1 with first-class Lurk support. Code

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs issued an August 4 zk roundup. Link

• zkHack (zkMesh) recapped July 2024 zk developments. Link

• Another Awesome-ZKP-Security list curates security-focused resources. Link

• SBC24 kicks off at 21:00 with sessions on proof system security, zkLogin, StarkWare’s Stwo, lattice-based folding (LatticeFold), and more. Agenda | Livestream